The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide

You know, I’m my favorite gambling writer, but everything I know about everything—gambling included—I learned from someone else. When it comes to gambling writers, I’ve learned more from some than from others.

Cousin Vito talks with author and casino enthusiast Jean Scott about her recent book The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide. Jean, otherwise known as “The Queen of Comps” give us tips and tricks to winning more and losing less at the casino. Visit www.queenofcomps.com for more info! Fall Annual Recreational Gambling Outing FARGO. Well, you could start by pulling out some cash from the ATM — whatever you feel comfortable with, honestly — and paying attention to the following advice from veteran gambling professional Jean Scott, author of The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide. So I can gamble however much money I want, huh? In early 1998 Jean released her first book, The Frugal Gambler, which was ground-breaking in explaining how the average casino player could get the most for their money. Whether it was seeking out bargains, or choosing the best-paying games, Jean had solid advice to help gamblers make the best choices.

And some of them are just entertaining to read, even if I think their advice is awful.

Below I’ve listed my 10 favorite gambling writers and included several reasons why I love each of them. Keep in mind that just because an author made this list, it doesn’t mean I endorse the strategies he suggests or the advice that he gives.

In fact, some of these writers made the list just because their advice is so awful

1- David Sklansky

I like reading about how to play poker, and I learned to play Texas holdem by reading the strategy section included in Sklansky’s book How to Make $100,000 a Year Gambling for a Living. The book was co-written by Mason Malmuth, but I’m not a fan of Malmuth’s writing. (I’ve read some of his other books.)

But I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve read by Sklansky. I think he has a puckish sense of humor and a unique attitude. One of the most recent books I read by him was DUCY? Exploits, Advice, and Ideas of the Renowned Strategist. A lot of the advice in that book is gambling-related, but some of them apply that kind of thinking to real-life situations.

In a sense, DUCY? Exploits, Advice, and Ideas of the Renowned Strategist is a self-help book from a different point of view. The book includes a great explanation of how to parallel park, too. And Sklansky explains how he handled a particular situation that would scare almost anyone—a home invasion.

Of course, he’s written or co-written more important works than that. The Theory of Poker is essential reading for anyone who’s serious about poker. Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players is also excellent. I also got a lot out of Sklansky Talks Blackjack, which is my favorite blackjack book.

I also used to enjoy Sklansky’s interactions on the Two Plus Two forums. I’m not sure he participates there much, anymore, but at one time he was pretty entertaining.

2- Jean Scott

Jean Scott is not as prolific an author as some of the folks on this list. But I’m a fan of video poker, and I’m also a fan of her unique approach to gambling.

A lot of advantage gamblers focus on making a living from their gambling hobby. Jean’s focus is mostly on how to get the most out of your casino vacations through a combination of taking advantage of promotions and playing top notch video poker.

Her first book, The Frugal Gambler, is essential reading for any casino low roller. She’s also the author of the following books, which are listed below in chronological order:

• More Frugal Gambling
• Tax Help for Gamblers
• Frugal Video Poker
• The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide
• The Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide

She also writes a blog at Las Vegas Advisor. It’s worth a look.

3- Bob Dancer

Bob Dancer is my favorite video poker guru, but I didn’t enjoy his novels at all. You might get a kick out of them, though. His approach to teaching video poker in his strategy guides is better than any approach I’ve seen in any other book. I actually felt like I could learn correct video poker strategy from his books.

I also enjoyed Million Dollar Video Poker, which is more of a memoir than a how-to book. It details how Dancer won over a million dollars playing video poker over a relatively short period of time in Vegas. I think it was less than a year.

Here’s a list of the strategy guides available via his website:

• A Winner’s Guide to Jacks or Better
• A Winner’s Guide to Double Bonus Poker
• A Winner’s Guide to Full Pay Deuces Wild
• A Winner’s Guide to NSU Deuces Wild
• A Winner’s Guide to Double Double Bonus Poker

Besides those books, you might be interested in some of his other books:

• Sex, Lies, and Video Poker (This is one of his novels that I didn’t much like.)
• More Sex, Lies, and Video Poker
• Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner

Bob writes articles on a blog, too, but it doesn’t look like he’s updated his blog in a while.

4- John Patrick

I include John Patrick on this list because he’s endlessly entertaining. Please buy used copies of his books, though—don’t pay full price. They are, for the most part, not worth the paper they’re printed on. The advice is lousy and flies in the face of logic and math.

But oh, is he entertaining. His writing is awful, full of grammatical errors and seemingly lacking in even a rudimentary knowledge of the difference between proper nouns and regular nouns.

The first John Patrick book I ever read was titled John Patrick’s Slots, which is an entire book of betting systems you can use to play slot machines. One of the gimmicks he uses in that book, which I thought was entertaining, was the names of some of the example players whose approach he denigrates.

For example, one of the “characters” in his book is named Don B. Leeve. (Read it out loud.) Claire Head is another one. Really silly stuff.

Most of his betting systems have a naked pull limit. When you’ve had X number of naked pulls in a row, you’re supposed to leave the machine and go do something else.

Another principle he works with is called a “loss limit.” This is an arbitrary percentage of your session bankroll that you’re willing to lose before you quit. The default is 60%. If you sit down at a slot machine with $100, and you’ve lost $60 playing it, then you’re supposed to quit.

Neither of these arbitrary principles will help you overcome the casino’s house edge on these slot machines, by the way. It’s mathematical voodoo.

One of the first slot systems he teaches is called “The Straight 60.” The premise is this:

You play on a slot machine until you’ve either won 60% of your bankroll or until you’ve lost 60% of your bankroll. Then you quit.

If you put $100 in the machine, you play until you have either $160 or $40, then you quit. The systems get more complicated from there.

He’s written several other books about casino games. I’ve read the one about craps, which isn’t too terrible. I’ve not read the others, but when I find a used copy, I’ll pick it up for entertainment value:

• John Patrick’s Advanced Craps
• Craps for the Clueless: A Beginner’s Guide to Playing and Winning
• John Patrick’s Craps
• John Patrick’s Baccarat
• So You Wanna Be a Gambler
• John Patrick’s Blackjack
• John Patrick’s Video Poker
• John Patrick’s Sports Betting
• John Patrick’s Money Management for Gamblers
• John Patrick’s Casino Poker
• John Patrick’s Advanced Blackjack
• John Patrick’s Internet Gambling
• Advanced Roulette

He has a website, but I don’t recommend visiting it. The design is 20 years old, and he links to multiple questionable sites from his homepage. Those are obviously links that those advertisers paid him for. He also hosts a forum, but it’s not user-friendly at all. He also types in all caps.

Frugal Gambler Casino Guide

What a character.

5- John Grochowski

He goes by the nickname of “the Casino Answer Man,” and that’s how most of his books are titled:

• The Craps Answer Book
• The Video Poker Answer Book
• The Slot Machine Answer Book
• The Casino Answer Book

John Grochowski is a solid writer who gives good advice. His books are pithy and readable. It’s hard to recommend John Grochowski’s stuff too highly.

6- John Vorhaus

A lot of poker players turn their noses up at John Vorhaus’s poker books, the Killer Poker series, but I loved them. Not all the advice in these books are positive expectation tips, though. In one of his books, he suggests raising indiscriminately preflop with your next 5 hands just to scare the other players.

He wrote several books in the series, but then he farmed out the next few books to another author, Tony Guerrera, whose poker advice is much more solid.

Vorhaus also wrote a great book about hosting home poker games called Poke Night. He’s a more entertaining writer than almost any other gambling writer I think of.

Here’s a list of books to think about reading from him:

That’s only a partial list, by the way, and Vorhaus doesn’t limit himself to just writing about poker, either.

7- Ed Miller

Some of the best writing on poker I’ve ever read was from Ed Miller, who used to have a website at the cheekily-named domain “notedpokerauthority.com.” He’s younger than many of the writers on this list. I thought his poker writing was easily digested and well-written.

He’s written (or co-written) a whole mess o’ books, too, including:

• Small Stakes Hold ’em: Winning Big With Expert Play
• Getting Started in Hold ’em
• No Limit Hold ‘Em: Theory and Practice
• Professional No Limit Hold ‘Em: Volume I
• Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em
• How to Read Hands at No-Limit Hold’em
• Playing The Player
• Poker’s 1%
• The Course
• STOP! 10 Things Good Poker Players Don’t Do

His website has moved to Ed Miller Poker.

8- Dan Harrington

He’s not just a poker writer; Dan Harrington won the Main Event at the 1995 World Series of Poker. He’s well-known for being a tight player, but his nickname is “Action Dan.” I love irony, and Dan apparently does, too, because he’s reputed to have chosen his own nickname.

His books contain excellent, well-written advice on specific poker subjects, and they include lots of easily-understood examples:

All Harrington’s books have been published by Two Plus Two, which is also my favorite gambling book publisher.

9- James McManus

He’s probably the most literary of the gambling writers on list, and he’s published at least 5 novels. The gambling books I love James McManus for, though, are Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion’s World Series of Poker and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker.

If you haven’t read Positively Fifth Street, you should buy a copy right away and get started. It’s a true story, but you won’t be able to put it down.

10- Michael Bluejay

This is the only gambling writer on the list who hasn’t published a book. He has had articles featured in magazines, but most of Michael Bluejay’s writing appears on the web at his excellent website about Vegas. You can find his writing on a number of other subjects at his main website, too.

Bluejay writes about subjects like how to buy a house, how to save money on electricity, and how to save money on airfare.

Besides being a great writer, he’s a really cool guy. I’ve met him in person once and exchanged emails with him throughout the years. We’ve had some conversations via the phone, too. By no means are we close friends, but he’s always been willing to help me out with sage, honest advice.

He also has a unique approach to running his website. He focuses more on serving his visitors than on making money. It’s almost as if making money happens by accident after that.

Conclusion

And those are my favorite authors of gambling books. I’m sure you’d have an entirely different list if you made one. Maybe it would be fun if you left something in the comments about your favorite gambling writers?

Who knows?

Maybe someday you’ll be a famous gambling writer, and I’ll include you on a new list.

by Steve Bourie Learn more about the authorread more »

In early 1998 Jean released her first book, The Frugal Gambler, which was ground-breaking in explaining how the average casino player could get the most for their money. Whether it was seekingout bargains, or choosing the best-paying games, Jean had solid advice to help gamblers make the best choices. In the course of promoting that book, Jean made an appearance on another nationalTV show, Hard Copy. This time around, however, her video poker luck was a little better as she hit four deuces on a full-pay Deuces Wild machine while beingfilmed for the segment.

Jean is now a TV veteran and makes regular appearances on many of the Travel Channel and Discovery Channel shows that cover Las Vegas and gambling. In 2003 she came out with her second book,More Frugal Gambling, and she also lent her name to Frugal Video Poker, a computer program designed to aid players in perfecting their play at video poker. Later that year she also co-authoredTax Help For The Frugal Gambler, which helps gamblers understand the various federal and state tax laws which apply to the money they win, plus it gives practical tips on how to possibly lessenthe tax bite on those winnings.

I first met Jean and Brad during one of my Las Vegas trips in 1998. We have continued to remain in touch and I try to meet them for lunch or dinner whenever I visit Vegas. For thisinterview I met them at their at their condo which is located just a few miles from the Las Vegas Strip. As a first-time visitor to their home, Brad put me through his ritual of touringtheir garage to view some of their casino “treasure.” There were literally hundreds of items neatly stored around the room, including a real video poker machine and dozens of jackets, t-shirts,sweatshirts and polo shirts emblazoned with casino logos. Naturally, most of the other items also featured casino logos, but there were many items, such as small appliances, that did not. Bradtook me to one particular table and said I could choose any one item as a gift. I chose a nice-looking t-shirt that sported the New York New York logo. Evidently, Brad does this with everyonewho visits their home and, when you read the following story abut their playing exploits, I’m quite sure you’ll agree that they will never run out of items to give away.

Q: Jean, how did you get involved in gambling?

I was raised in a very strict minister’s home where gambling was a sin - however we played a lot of non-gambling games and we played for blood, even if it was only Monopoly or Chutes andLadders. I was the oldest of three girls and my sisters were 5 and 10 years younger than I was; but by the time they could talk, I was teaching them games, so I would have someone to play with!In my book The Frugal Gambler, I titled the introduction “From Uncle Wiggley to Deuces Wild.” And that’s the kind of transition I made. Growing up, we girls weren’t allowed to have dice orplaying cards in the house, so it wasn’t until my mid 30s that I even learned the four suits, and I still think of clubs as clovers and spades as shovels, the way I learned them.

Q: How did you and your husband, Brad, meet?

In the early 1980s we met at the Moose Lodge in Indianapolis where we both played Tonk, which is a Gin-type game played for money. We both were very intense about the game and our commoncompetitiveness attracted us to each other immediately. Brad’s favorite joke is telling people he won me in a Tonk game.

Q: What were the stakes in those Moose Lodge Tonk games?

It was a four or five-handed game and we would play mostly for $2/$4, but sometimes up to $5/$10. Twenty years ago that was considered fairly high stakes. We were both very good at skill games,and we soon realized that we were playing mostly with people who were terribly unskilled. Again, a gaming lesson was reinforced: there was a dumb way to gamble and a smart way to gamble.Eventually, we won enough money at the Moose Tonk tables to buy our condo in Indianapolis.

Q: What was Brad’s background in gambling?

Unlike me, Brad had been a gambler practically since he had been born, because he had older brothers who taught him to play cards when he was very young. He tells the story about when he wasjust five years old and learned about the skills needed to become successful at gambling. He had saved 11 cents, all the money he had in the world, and joined a Tonk game with his two brothers,who of course were much more experienced and skilled than he was. He soon lost this whole life’s savings of 11 cents and left the game crying. People ask him today, “And youhave never lost since?” He answers, “Yes, I’ve lost since, but I‘ve never cried since.” He had learned early in life that you had to have a decent bankroll and that you had to play a lot togain experience and learn to be skillful.

When he went into the Air Force, he found that a lot of the servicemen liked to gamble although few were knowledgeable about the games, so with his experience, it became a lucrative pastime forhim. Then, when he was older and back in Indiana as a civilian, he played in the small-town cigar stores where they had card games in the back room.

So, although I learned to play games for money much later in life than Brad did, I too learned many gaming lessons while I was growing up. Scrabble ultimately became our main family gameand, of course, that was a skill game. I always knew that skill won over luck.

Q: When did you start going to casinos?

In 1984 Brad and I came to Vegas on our first vacation together. We went to a travel agent and bought a package. It included air and hotel and, because I’m frugal, of course I chose thecheapest package, which had us staying at the well worn Landmark Hotel and Casino. But we didn’t care – we were just thrilled to be in such an exciting city with so many gamblingopportunities.

Q: Did you make money on that first visit?

No. Although we were both skilled at many gambling and non-gambling games, we were babes in the woods as far as casino games. I mostly played seat-of-the-pants blackjack; I hadnever heard that there was anything called good strategy. Brad mostly played the slots. So we lost/spent the whole $1,000 we had brought with us. However, we didn’t feel bad becausewe had budgeted this amount as “vacation money.” It lasted the whole trip and we had a wonderful time.

Q: Did you want to go back to Vegas again?

We knew for sure we wanted to return to Vegas and after we had been home for about two or three weeks, we got an offer in the mail from the Westward Ho for three free nights with food andentertainment thrown in. We thought - “wow” this is great! But at that time we didn’t have $1,000 for every three-day vacation, so I decided to learn more about casino gambling.

I went to the public library and found out that they had many shelves of books about Las Vegas and gambling. I read them all, soaking up information like a sponge. I was happy to learnthat, just like in many other gaming areas, there is a smarter way to approach casino play and blackjack was a good game to choose. So we learned how to play blackjack skillfully, firstusing basic strategy and then by counting cards.

Q: Did you know how to count cards on your second trip to Vegas?

No. We only knew basic strategy on the second trip. Then, Bobby Singer, a marketer of a blackjack program, came to Indianapolis for a seminar on how to count cards. We attended and while wewere there we met a junket rep that saw that we were really interested in playing blackjack. In fact, he bought us the Bobby Singer system, which cost a couple hundred dollars - since I was toocheap to buy it myself. Instead, I was just going to go to the library to learn card counting. I guess he figured we would be good junket people because at this time we were already really keenon gambling.

His investment was not wasted. We started going on junkets all over the world. We went to Atlantic City, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and even to the fabulous Monte Carlo in Monaco.We also took a lot of junkets to Reno and Lake Tahoe. At that time Harrah’s had a private plane that would come and pick up 25-30 gamblers in Indianapolis. We were playing green ($25) chips atthis time and were really on the lowest level of the high roller junketeers, but we both gambled. In a lot of cases just the man gambled while the woman shopped, so we both gambled and ithelped us to build up a higher average bet rating.

Q: How did you do on those trips? Did you make money?

We just about broke even. I was never really good at counting cards. I liked to chat at the tables, so it was hard for me to keep track of the cards. I am really not a mathematical person; I’mmore of a word person – obvious, I guess, since I’m a writer. Brad was always better at the card counting. We weren’t always playing at the casinos that had the very best rules, so about allour card counting did was to help us break even. Sometimes we also had to count on our comps to consider ourselves breaking even, but at that time we were having magnificent, luxuriousvacations and we were comped for everything, so we felt that we were having a wonderful time for very little outlay of our own money.

Q: Then what happened? You got tired of playing blackjack?

In 1989, two things happened to change our game of choice. First, Brad decided to retire from his federal Civil Service job. We had been going to Vegas and on these junkets by using every sparebit of extra time we had. Brad had built up a lot of leave time that he hadn’t used for years and we were using it by traveling over holiday weekends and for longer vacations of 10 days to twoweeks. However, in 1989 he was eligible to retire and we wanted to spend more time traveling, particularly in Vegas, so he retired. Then, we were looking for a game that would let us stayin casinos for free for long periods of time.

Second, toward the end of the 80s there was a big change in how casinos were giving out comps. The machine players started getting more of the “freebies” than the table players. Junkets werenot as popular as they had been and the playing requirements for the luxurious trips like we had been going on for years took much higher play. The golden era of junkets was about over.

One day in 1989, while we were playing blackjack in Vegas, Brad left the table and was gone for a long time. At first I thought he had left because the aces were gone from the deck and thecount was negative. I assumed he had gone to the restroom, but he was gone for like half-an-hour and I kept thinking, he can’t be in the restroom all this time, so I went to look for him.

I left our chips at the table for the dealer to watch and said, “I have to find my husband.” I went to look for him and I found him playing a video poker machine. This was before we knewanything about video poker and I said, “Brad, what are you doing? Don’t you know that smart people play the tables and dumb people play the machines?” He said, “But this is so muchmore fun.'

At this time we had both been backed off blackjack tables at a couple of casinos, and the pit bosses were now watching players much closer than they had in the past. Unfortunately, if youlooked like you knew what you were doing, you always had to do some sort of cover-up procedure - like acting dumb. We were just getting tired of the pressure of counting cards and feeling likewe weren’t wanted.

Brad said video poker was so much more fun and you didn’t have to worry about some pit boss staring you down. We were at the Westward Ho at the time, but Brad said we should go to the Stardustnext door because he had been there in his wanderings and he had played some video poker there.

The first thing I noticed when we played VP at the Stardust was this little sign on the machines that said “Join our slot club and get cash back” - and I thought - well, if we’re going toplay video poker just for entertainment, because I knew we didn’t know what we were doing, we ought to at least be joining the slot club; so we did.

About the same time I read in the local gambling publication called Gaming Today an article by Lenny Frome that said video poker could be beaten. He said to “leave the slots and learn to playvideo poker.” He said it was a good game, that anyone could learn how to play better, and that he had a strategy for playing 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker machines. I told Brad, “If we aregoing to play VP, we’re going to learn the right strategy,” and then I found out that Frome had written a book with some strategies in it for video poker.

At first we thought, we’ll just play this 9/6 Jacks or better game that he talked about and I’ll wait until we go home to look for his book in the library. Well, his books weren’t in theIndianapolis public library. So the next time we came to Vegas I said, “Well, we must get Lenny’s book. I had called and found out it was sold at the Gamblers Book Club downtown. And so we walked – we still do a lot of walking - all the way from the Westward Ho down to the Gamblers Book Club, which is more than a three-mile walk.

We bought the book, walked back the three miles to the Westward Ho, and I went straight to the room to read it from cover to cover while I was resting my tired dogs. It was then that Idiscovered full-pay Deuces Wild and I was just thrilled to death because Frome said that the game had an over 100% long-term return if you used the right strategy.

I took the book with me everywhere, and Brad and I would sit down beside a full-pay deuces wild machine at the Westward Ho or sometimes we would go across the street to the Riviera, which alsohad the same game. Brad would sit at a machine and play and I would sit at the next machine with the book in hand and every time we had a hand that we didn’t know how to play, I would look itup on the strategy chart and then he would play it. We got to the point that we knew the strategy fairly well; even that first day we played hours and hours using Frome’s strategy. But, I’mallergic to smoke and the smoke was getting to me. Finally, I said to Brad, “I’m going to my room. I think we know the strategy pretty well, but I’ll leave the book in the tray and you cancheck it if you need it.” Anyway, I go to the room because I’m really tired and soon I get a phone call from Brad and he says, “Guess what - I got a royal flush!” That was December 31,1991.

The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide Download

We actually had joined the slot club at the Stardust in January of 1990, but we hadn’t played too much. We still were playing blackjack most of the time and we just fiddled around with thevideo poker until I knew that we were using the correct strategies. Then, from the end of 1991 we weren’t playing blackjack much anymore. We were playing full-pay deuces wild exclusively forhours and hours. Brad got his second royal December 13, 1992, which was almost a year later, and I got my first one soon after.

Q: Do you keep track of the dates of all your royal flushes?

Yes.

Q: How many have you had in your gambling career?

At the end of 1999, Brad had 94 and I had 47. I have more current statistics, but I’ll have to look them up and e-mail them to you later. (Jean later e-mailed me a note saying that she and Bradhad gotten a total of 305 royal flushes through the end of 2003. She also pointed out that they have hit royals much more frequently since the advent of multi-line machines which allow you toplay as many as 100 hands at one time.) Brad’s always played a lot more than I have. In fact, he has always played about twice as much as I have, because I spend a lot of time organizing ourlife and our casino visits. I try to make sure that we are playing at the very best times at the best places and this takes a lot of reading and organizing. I have an elaborate calendar to keeptrack of everything. This all takes time – but I say that being organized is the basis for our success in gambling.

Q: How often were you going to Las Vegas after you started devoting your time exclusively to video poker?

Once we retired, we stayed for longer periods. The first time we stayed three weeks and then we just kept stretching that out further and further because we were getting all these free roomoffers. We would stay three days in my name and then three days in his name at the same casino because we would both belong to the slot club and we would both get the offers.

Q: At some point, you decided you wanted to live in Las Vegas?

Well, we started staying longer and longer. Of course, we lived in Indiana, so one of our longest stays would be in the wintertime. We would drive out in November, usually right afterThanksgiving and we would stay until February. Then we would be staying until March, and then we would be staying until April. Although we were staying for free, we were gettingolder and we were getting a little tired of packing and unpacking our suitcases every few days. We were always frugal, getting good value for our money, but we had more money saved up now andwe finally said we had to get our own place in Vegas.

Actually, two years before that, a friend of ours had a condo in Vegas which we used periodically. So we had lived in a condo and really liked the idea of not having to play for a free room. Wecould play video poker where it was best to play video poker, rather than where it was best to earn our room. We liked this idea so well that we decided to get a condo of our own. By that timewe had gone up in denomination and we had made enough money playing VP to buy a condo of our own. We did that in 1999 and for two years we kept our place in Indianapolis and our condo here.

We thought we would always stay in Vegas in the wintertime and go back to Indianapolis in the summertime. But, after we had our condo, it was the same tiring thing – we had to keep going backand forth. We still had our feet in both places and every month I would see the utility bills coming out of that Indiana home and the upkeep and so forth. We would go back to Indiana and thenwe wouldn’t even be there very long because we would be packing up and we’d go up to the Joliet, Illinois riverboat casino and play every weekend, or every mid-week for 3-4 days. Finally, Bradsaid that we could sell our place in Indiana and when we come back to Indiana we could stay at the Hyatt Regency cheaper than keeping up with one condo here and one condo there. So we sold theIndy condo and we have never ever regretted that decision. Our life is here in Vegas.

Q: Are you and Brad professional gamblers now?

We don’t call ourselves professional gamblers. We think that a professional gambler earns his living gambling, or at least a major part of it, and there are very few people who dothat. Actually, we could have done that, but we were already retired and had a pension – and besides, we don’t want to play that much. If you have to classify us, you could call us“skilled” gamblers rather than “professional” gamblers.

Q: What is a typical day like for you and Brad, now that you live in Las Vegas?

Once we moved to Vegas, we play less than we did before as far as hours per day because we don’t have to play for a free room. We can choose any casino in town and play just where there aregood promotions. I find this is true for a lot of people who move to Vegas. A few people, when they first move here, think “Oh, now I can play all the time!” They may do thatfor a few months and then they realize, “I don’t have to do this. It’s always going to be here and there is something called ‘life’ outside the casino.” Otherwise, it gets to be toointense. You want to just live your normal life that you lived back when you did not have a casino down the street. Also, with us, we are getting older. I’m 65 and Brad is 72. Weplay less and less because our energy level isn’t what it used to be. Sometimes, we just get tired and of course Brad had a heart attack one year ago, and I’m allergic to smoke, so we feel likeit is not a healthy situation to be in smoke-filled casinos all day. Brad still plays more than I do, because again, I am now at home writing articles and books as well as doing the usualorganization. Plus he always liked to play a little more often than I do. We probably play about a total of 20 hours a week. That is about 12 for him and 8 for me. We do not gamble every day.We are in a casino most days to eat or pickup a bounceback cash offer, but not necessarily to play.

Q: Obviously, you keep very accurate records of your casino visits. Have you always made money since you moved to Las Vegas?

We have always made money since we started playing video poker. When I say always, I mean at the end of the year we play enough that we get to the “long-term” in a year. On December 31st whenwe close our books, we are always in the black, but the dollar amount varies. One year, a couple of years ago, we barely did that. Actually, we did not pick up some of our bounceback cash onDecember 31st and on the books that resulted in about a $200 paper loss. We didn’t actually lose it; we just had not picked up the cashback from the slot club. There was going to be a TV showin January and they wanted to film us collecting cashback, so we didn’t pick it up in December. But we have really never ever had a year that we have lost money. That year we won just alittle bit, but sometimes we make in the five figures. Playing video poker is a long-term game and you have to play many, many hours to realize the average expected return. On the way, however,it is definitely a roller coaster ride for your bankroll.

Q: Are you talking only about cash profits? This is counting only cash that we have won from the game and cashback, which you can collect the same day and bounceback,which comes in the mail.

Actually, the way we have made our money has changed. When we were playing quarter video poker, we were playing full-pay Deuces Wild which had a really high return, 100.7% We made most ofour money back then from the actual game and since we were only playing quarters, our cashback was small - but it was steady. Cashback is always positive. Playing a game is notalways positive; you lose probably two times out of three on the actual game, but cashback is always a plus figure. Even when we were playing quarters, we always looked for promotions.There are a lot of cash promotions - like a bonus for card of the day. For cashback, we would look for double points. We have always been heavy on the promotions.

We changed from quarters to dollars in 1995 and sometimes we now play much higher than dollars. We will play up to $100 a hand on a $2 10-play machine. Once we moved up in denomination, thingschanged, especially in the last 2-3 years. There is much less video poker with a positive expectation, especially at the higher levels of dollars and above. Now, we play almost entirelynegative expectation games, but when you include cashback and bounceback cash, and most of all, the fact that we constantly take advantage of casino promotions, then that always puts us over100%. It is not nearly as easy to make money now as when we started in 1991. You have to work harder and you have to be choosier about your plays.

Q: So besides making money, you get all of the comps and other freebies?

We never count comps as profit. We consider it “gravy.” If I get a gift certificate for a grocery store, or for gas, or for shopping at Macys, I will count that as cash. That iswhat I call a cash equivalent. We get a lot of those. Instead of giving cash back, a lot of casinos are going to cash equivalents such as gift certificates or gift cards. But I do notcount any of our meals or hotel rooms. We almost never stay in a hotel now, but we get them for our friends and family because we earn them and it is a waste not to use them.

We get all the food that we can possibly eat and we throw away hundreds of dollars of comps every month that we just don’t pick up - you can only eat so much. Also, we get an awful lot of giftsfrom the casinos. Some of those have a high cash value, but we don’t count those because, for one thing, we get more than we can use and we mostly just give them away.

Q: What is the best practical advice you can give people that are just starting out learning about gambling, or even people who have been gambling for a while?

Well, for the novice, I would say that you have to get a slot card and always use it, whether you are playing the slots or table games. The key to getting all the benefits is being recognizedby the casino - and the only way you can do that is to join the player’s club and then you put your card in the machine, or you give the card to a pit boss at tables, and get rated. Thatis where all the comps come from. Casinos are not going to give you comps if they don’t know that you’re playing in their casino. A player’s card is the foundation for all benefits.

The second thing is to become more knowledgeable. Read. This is why I wrote The Frugal Gambler and More Frugal Gambling. My first book is especially good for the person who does not knowanything about the math and needs to learn that some games are better than others. Most people think that casinos have the edge all the time, but that isn’t true. The people who study are theones who find the better games to play and the better casinos to play in.

On every book that I have autographed, and there have been a lot of them, tens of thousands, I always write, “The more you study, the luckier you will be!”